Let’s be honest. Healing from relational trauma or complex PTSD can feel like trying to assemble a puzzle with half the pieces missing. You might have the cognitive insights—you know what happened, you understand the patterns—but your body? It’s still braced for impact. It hums with anxiety, flinches at a raised voice, or just feels…numb. Disconnected.
That’s where somatic practices come in. They’re the missing link. The word “somatic” simply means “of the body,” and these approaches are based on a revolutionary, yet ancient, idea: to heal trauma, we must involve the physical vessel that experienced it. We can’t just think our way out of a survival response that’s etched into our nervous system.
Why Talk Therapy Isn’t Always Enough for Complex Trauma
Don’t get me wrong, traditional talk therapy is invaluable. But for relational trauma—the kind that happens in early, repeated attachments—and its more entrenched cousin, complex PTSD, something more is often needed. The wound wasn’t just a single event; it was an environment. A chronic condition of not feeling safe, seen, or soothed.
This type of trauma gets stored in implicit memory. That’s the body’s memory. It’s the racing heart you can’t logic away, the gut feeling of dread, the way you freeze when criticized. Your body holds the story. Somatic therapy for trauma aims to read that story, gently, and help you write a new ending.
The Core Principle: Befriending Your Nervous System
Here’s the deal. Trauma, especially complex PTSD, keeps your nervous system stuck in a loop. It’s like a faulty alarm that keeps blaring “danger” long after the threat is gone. Somatic practices work by helping you become the operator of that alarm system, not its hostage.
The goal isn’t to eliminate the alarm, but to recalibrate its sensitivity. To learn the difference between a real threat and a remembered one. This process of nervous system regulation is the bedrock of somatic healing. You learn to track sensations—a tight chest, a clenched jaw—without being overwhelmed by them. You start to notice the subtle shift when you feel a flicker of safety. And you build from there.
Key Somatic Modalities to Explore
There are several powerful pathways into this work. Think of them as different doors into the same room: a more embodied, present you.
- Somatic Experiencing (SE): Developed by Peter Levine, SE focuses on discharging trapped survival energy (think fight, flight, freeze) that didn’t get to complete its cycle. It’s a gentle process of titration—working with small bits of sensation so you don’t get retraumatized.
- Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: This directly blends talk therapy with body awareness. A therapist might guide you to notice what’s happening in your body as you discuss a difficult memory, helping to process it on a deeper level.
- Hakomi: A mindfulness-centered somatic method. It uses gentle experiments to bring unconscious, core beliefs (“I’m not safe”) to the surface through bodily felt experience.
- Trauma-Informed Yoga: This isn’t your typical workout class. It emphasizes choice, interoception (feeling inside the body), and finding comfort in postures. The focus is on reclaiming agency, one breath and one movement at a time.
Simple Somatic Practices You Can Try Right Now
You don’t need to be in formal therapy to start. Honestly, the journey begins with tiny moments of awareness. Here are a few grounding somatic exercises for PTSD that can act as anchors.
1. Orienting
This is about using your senses to connect to the present. Slowly, without straining your neck, let your gaze softly wander around the room. Notice colors, textures, light. Name three things you see. Then listen for three distinct sounds. Feel the contact points of your body with the chair or floor. This simple act tells your primitive brain, “Look, we’re here. We’re safe right now.”
2. Pendulation
A concept from Somatic Experiencing. First, notice an area of discomfort or tension in your body. Just acknowledge it. Don’t try to change it. Then, deliberately shift your attention to a place in your body that feels neutral, or even pleasant. Maybe it’s the weight of your hands in your lap, or the cool air in your nostrils. Go back and forth—discomfort, neutral, discomfort, neutral. This builds your capacity to hold sensation without being flooded by it.
3. Self-Holding or “Havening”
Cross your arms and give yourself a gentle squeeze, or place one hand on your heart and the other on your belly. Apply a soft, comforting pressure. This tactile input can stimulate the release of oxytocin and serotonin, calming the amygdala—the brain’s fear center. It’s a direct way to offer yourself the comfort that was perhaps missing.
What to Expect: The Journey Isn’t Linear
Integrating somatic healing for complex PTSD is a slow, non-linear process. Some days you’ll feel a profound sense of release. Other days, you’ll feel more. That’s okay. In fact, it’s normal. The body unravels its stories in its own time.
You might experience moments of frustration. The mind wants a quick fix, but the body works on the rhythm of seasons, not clock time. Be prepared for old memories to surface, but now with a new resource: your ability to stay present with the physical sensations, without dissociating or panicking. That’s the healing.
| Common Challenge | Somatic Perspective & Response |
| Feeling “stuck” in freeze or collapse | Focus on micro-movements (wiggling a toe, turning the head) to complete the thwarted flight/fight impulse. |
| Overwhelming emotional flashbacks | Use grounding & orienting first to establish safety in the present, then explore the emotion’s location in the body. |
| Disconnection from the body (dissociation) | Start with external senses (orienting) or very neutral body parts (the elbow, a kneecap) to gently re-enter. |
The Ultimate Goal: Coming Home to Yourself
In the end, integrating somatic practices isn’t about fixing something broken. It’s about remembrance. It’s about reclaiming the body as a home, not a battlefield. For those with relational wounds, this is profound. You learn that your sensations are valid messengers. That your boundaries can be felt and honored. That safety isn’t just an abstract concept, but a state you can cultivate from the inside out.
The path of somatic healing whispers a quiet, powerful truth: you are not just a mind carrying a heavy story. You are a living, breathing organism with a innate capacity to find balance. To find rest. To, however slowly, learn trust again—starting with the subtle, often overlooked, wisdom of your own skin and bones.
